Confessions
by Chris St Thomas
Summary: Trust AU. Clark must decide how to best persue a relationship with his son. CH 13: Lois Remembers
1. Prologue: Ch 1, rev 2

"What on Earth am I going to do, Bruce?" It was a sincere question, posed out of a genuine desire to understand his situation. Maybe he wasn't asking the person most likely to know the answer, but he was asking one man he trusted to help him understand the situation.

The first response Bruce gave was not equally sincere. It wasn't directly sincere at all. "About what Clark? Famine? Disease? Nuclear proliferation? The world changed while you were gone."

"I thought with the Berlin Wall down and General Zod vanquished…"

"No, Clark," Bruce turned back to face him. "You didn't think. You couldn't think. You just left. And some of us had a damned hard time filling your boots."

They were quite for a time, their eyes focused inward.

"Where did you go, man?" Bruce looked over at Clark, his face sober, his eyes expressing concern.

"Didn't you read Lois's column?" Clark queried, adjusting his glasses, slightly defensive.

"I did. You went to Krypton. You found the ghost of a world. But I don't think you gave her the whole story."

"Why not?"

"Because you couldn't give it to her. There'd be no way for her to understand, no way for her to put it into context, no context for her to put it into.

"What makes you say that, Bruce?"

"You couldn't tell her for the same reason you can't tell me. And for that matter neither of us can give you absolution and plead your case to the world." Bruce abruptly changed the subject, "I did some research on her fiancé, Richard White."

"Oh?"

"He wasn't always a newspaperman. He served in the armed forces. One of his patrols was lost. I think you can tell him. I think he will understand that part of you."

"How did you figure it out? I never told you what I was asking about."

"I'm the World's Greatest Detective, remember?"

"Thanks, Bruce. I'll need you to return one of the samples."

Clark turned back, and Bruce was gone. He usually only did that in uniform. A small led box sat where moments before, Bruce had stood.

Tuesdays had become Richard White's day to open _Daily Planet_. His uncle Perry came in early on Monday and got the team fired up. But he let Richard get things going on Tuesdays. The news was like cooking soup. On Monday, all the ingredients went into the pot. On Tuesdays, it would simmer on Tuesday and most of it would be done by Wednesday and Thursday. The man who could run the Daily Planet on Tuesdays: let the news simmer, season it, stir it, keep it from boiling over before it was done, that man could run the whole show. It had taken Richard a while to learn that. When he did, he began to relish it. Some days he would come in half an hour early and listen to the silent presses, look at the empty loading docks, enjoy the stillness before the next day's news cycle began. At those times the whole world seemed to hold its breath.

Richard heard a rap on his door. Looking up, he saw Clark there, and motioned for him to come in. "You're in early, Kent."

Clark slid the door open and stepped in lithely, like a panther on the hunt. Richard thought this was somehow out of character. Clark was usually tripping over himself. And he nearly always wore a three piece suit and a fedora hat. What was he saying, "…Oh, you know all those years of doing chores growing up on the farm, milking cows, feeding chickens…"

Clark was moving like an athlete and wearing a blazer over an open necked shirt. That wasn't like him all. Richard responded, "That isn't what you came here to talk about. Is it?"

"Well, jeepers, Mr. White - -" Clark stammered, pushing his glasses up on his face.

Richard held up his hands gently but firmly and tipped his slightly, "Mr. White is my uncle. Most people call my dad Agent White, though those who've known him the longest call him Colonel. No, Clark, please call me Richard."

"Alright then, Richard, did you notice the box on your desk?"

"The one sitting under my Hank Aaron autographed baseball? How could I miss it?"

"I've got another baseball, right here." Clark pulled it out of his pocket. "Bring the box up to the roof later after you get the paper up and running. Bring a lump of coal from the furnace down in the cellar, too. We'll throw the baseball and talk for a bit, man to man."

"Man to man, Clark?"

Clark let the remark pass, and asked directly, frankly, "When you were in the Service, Richard, did you ever kill anyone?"

"Well, I dropped bombs, delivered precision guided munitions, and ran my share of Close Air Support missions."

"That isn't what I meant."

"I'll meet you on the roof later." Richard stepped out and shut the door, leaving Clark alone in the office.

Clark opened the door, walked back to his desk and sat down. He pulled out his note pad and flipped thru it. Bruce had prompted some great story ideas. Hezbollah, Israel, Iran, Syria… Clark was sure Bruce had some stories to tell about the Middle East. Wayne Industries wasn't just technologies, chemicals and dishwashers anymore. Clark might go after some of those stories one day. But for today, he had finish up the piece on the power outage. The piece that had been forgotten the afternoon when Lois and Jason went missing, when an earthquake hit Metropolis, when he found out he was a father and his whole world tilted on its axis.

Clark opened up his laptop computer, spread out his notes and Lois's and dove into the story head long. Every electrical device on the East Coast goes dark…ConEd says that the outage had started at the VanDerhoval Estate…Lex Luthor had…" Clark barely came up for air when heard Lois say, "Hi, Clark, want some coffee?"

He turned to look and she actually had three cups. Clark heard footsteps as Richard came up and kissed his fiancée on the cheek. Richard removed one of the cups from the holder and set it on Lois's desk. He picked up the holder in one hand and offered it to Clark, "Thank you honey, but Clark and I are going to talk." In other hand Richard held the small grey metal box.

Lois looked at them both quizzically… "Talk?"

"Yeah, male bonding," Clark chimed in. "We'll talk about beating drums in the woods, Lois, things you wouldn't understand."

"Oh, I'd understand alright." She stood back up. Richard gestured for her to stay behind. "It's okay, honey. The paper is up and running. Uncle Perry is here to take the con for a while. We'll be back."


	2. Chapter 2

This series is somewhat inspired by Superman Returns, somewhat inspired by current events. I still don't own anything that belongs to DC Comics or Bad Had Harry Productions. Trish will appear courtesy of Speakfire, before the end of this whole thing. ---------

The situation seemed to be leading up to something, but Richard White wasn't sure to what, and Clark wasn't giving any hints. At least he wasn't giving any hints that Richard knew how to read.

As the two rode up the elevator to the roof, Clark thought to himself that this was the first time he had ever actually ridden the elevator all the way up. Usually, he got in the elevator alone and climbed through the service hatch to change from a three-piece suit into his caped uniform. But today he had left a blazer at his desk, and he wore no fedora hat, no vest, no tie. He felt liberated.

Clark glanced over at Richard. The reporter resisted the impulse to use Kryptonian senses and listen to the editor's heart rate, or examine his forearms with microvision, looking for perspiration. Choosing, instead, to limit himself to the senses of an earthman, he felt strangely liberated. He saw that Richard's tie was loosened, and that the other man looked slightly rumpled and casual. After all he had rolled up his sleeves digging into work for hours: assigning new stories and following up with reporters on their continuing work. He struck a casual pose leaning back against the hand rail, sipping his coffee. Richard's breathing was slow and calm, but his eyes held tension as though he felt slightly out of his depth.

Instead of the man who might be a romantic rival, Clark saw someone whom he was choosing to take into his confidence. Instead of a superior at the newspaper, he saw a man whom he was choosing to make his friend. "Did you see the Meteors play the Yankees?"

"No. Last night, Jason and I watched the Giants play the Dragons."

"Huh? The Giants played the Tigers last night. What are you talking about?"

"No, Clark, the Tigers played the Bay Stars."

Clark sipped his coffee and racked his brain. Nothing came. He relaxed closed his eyes and let his mind drift. Giants, Dragons, Tigers, Bay Stars… "You're talking about Japanese professional baseball, aren't you?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"I…" Clark thought faster, glancing up and away, then replied "read an article about Japanese baseball in the in-flight magazine on Continental Airlines a few months ago.

"So," he turned back to face Richard, "why do you follow Japanese baseball?"

"My dad was stationed in Japan when I started watching baseball with him. I was about Jason's age, and it was his last regular assignment, before he helped to form Task Force One-Sixty and switched to covert ops. I've tried to follow it ever since. Where ever I lived, Germany, England, Air Force Bases all over the world, I always found a way to follow the Japanese teams. That was one of the few constants in my life growing up.

"What about you Clark, what sports teams do you follow?"

"The Kansas City Chiefs, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago Bulls."

"Who were your heroes growing up, Kent?"

"Neil Armstrong, Albert Einstein, the Hebrew Prophet Elijah."

"You mean the one who called down fire from heaven on the sacrifices?"

"Yeah. That one."

"Are you testing me, Kent?"

"No, no. I went to Sunday School as a young kid. I looked up to those Scripture heroes."

Ding.

"This looks like our floor."

"So, it does."

Reporter and editor stepped out of the elevator and walked up the last couple of steps from the elevator house onto the roof. Richard turned toward Clark, "So, what gives? A lead box, a lump of coal, and a baseball..."

"We'll get to them, Richard. But not in that order."

"It's a little windy up here for throwing baseball. What's going on here?"

"I played football in high school: Quarterback and wider receiver. I knew you liked baseball, so I thought maybe we could swap some sports stories, talk about our fathers, our family businesses, you know, get to know each other."

"Okay, maybe I'll buy that, but what are you selling, Clark? What have fence posts, organic eggs and corn got to do with the military or newspapering?"

This wasn't going as Clark had planned. Maybe he should just invent some excuse to go back down and finish writing that article on the blackout.

"I'm just giving you a hard time, Kent. You and my wi--, my fianc-- …you and Lois shared enough bylines while I was working as a war correspondent and running the European Bureau of the Planet. Well, I know there's some history there. And then there the fact that she won't talk about you and my uncle only grunts when I ask. The only one around here who'll talk about you is Jimmy, that is, when he's not talking about Chloe." Richard paused and looked wistfully up at the clouds. He was beginning to let down his guard.

"So, what about you, Kent?"

"I introduced them."

"Who?"

"Chloe and Jimmy. I came up here with her for the first week of summer internships before our senior year at Smallville High."

"You don't say… you and Chloe Sullivan the original intrepid girl reporter…and sports?"

"Yeah, as I said, I played high school football. We won the state championship my senior year. I threw the winning touchdown on a Hail Mary pass that would have made Roger Staubach proud."

"I never won any batting titles, but I was quite the shortstop. I helped get more than my share of double and triple plays. And the friends I had back then."

"Me, too. Pete Ross, Lana, Chloe, even Lex."

"You knew Lex Luthor in high school?"

"Yeah, we were friends before everything changed. Before he changed…"

"What about you and Lois?"

"We were friends, colleagues, we covered stories together and then there was that mess with General Zod."

"Yeah, right before astronomers sited Krypton and Superman disappeared."

"I always wondered if Superman's disappearance had more to do with General Zod than it did with anything astronomers saw through the Hubble Space Telescope."

"Didn't my wi-, my, my … Lois get that scoop? It was just Krypton?"

"That's what the article said, but I still wonder. So, what about that lost patrol? This isn't any off-kilter, Manchurian Candidate style event, is it?"

"No. I was hitching are ride, before my R&R, riding jump seat in an Army Blackhawk doing convoy duty. The convoy got ambushed, my helicopter got shot down. We were pinned down by hostile fire. I took an M-60 machine gun from an Army troop with shrapnel in his leg and held off the enemy while the wounded troop called in a two ship CAS sortie from my fighter squadron. I killed two men that day one at sixty yards the other at 150. I told myself they were just terrorists, sub-humans. But…taking a life changes a man. Soon after that day, I decided to finish my combat tour and leave the Air Force which was my father's family business, for the other family business: Uncle Perry's."

"So that it's it, your uncle just hired you?"

"I got my commission through ROTC, while studying journalism at the University of Missouri. I finished top of my class in both fields. That's how I got selected for a flight billet. That's how got hired at the Planet. "

"Do tell…"

"Uncle Perry sent me right back over there as an embedded reporter with the ground combat forces. I got to know the young GIs and Marines. That assignment, covering those troops, helped me to understand myself, to come to grips with the lives I took that day on my lost patrol."

Clark rolled up his sleeves. "So, hand me that coal there, Richard."

"Okay…" Clearly he has nothing up his sleeves, Richard said to himself.

Clark took the coal lump in both hands and compressed it. An ear splitting crack emerged from his hands. He opened them and showed Richard a diamond.

"Great Scott, Clark. How?"

"No excuses, Richard. I'm Superman."

"So, why all of this?"

"First because of General Zod - -"

"No I mean the glasses, the suits and ties, the fedora hat?"

"I need a life, Richard. Doesn't everyone? But that's not what I came up here to talk to you about. You killed men in war, maybe you can understand what I did, what I had to do."

"Okay, then, General Zod, Clark tell me about General Zod. Why am I calling you Clark?"

"Because that's my name. My Mom and Dad named me that in Smallville, when they adopted me after the first Smallville meteor shower."

"Yeah, but I'm talking to you as Superman, now. And saying Superman, just doesn't roll off the tongue, you know?"

"You can call me Kal. My Kryptonian name is Kal-El. It was given to my by father Jor-El and my mother Lara. I need to tell you about General Zod."

"Sure, continue, I'm listening."

"I killed him. Killed them. Killed General Zod and his acolytes. Not Judge, nor jury, but Executioner, I tricked Luthor into luring him and Ursa and Narn up to the Fortress of Solitude. I used a red solar ray device to weaken them. And I killed them."

"Okay…as I recall they tried to conquer the world. They tore up our lunar mission, they killed hundreds of people, but why did you have to kill them if you took their powers away?"

"I'll get to that. You think what they did here was bad? You should have seen their body count on Krypton. My father Jor-El and the Council of Elders gave them a capital sentence that would have led to execution if Kryptonian Law had provided for it. Instead General Zod and his acolytes were imprisoned in a nearly unreachable parallel existence which my father called the Phantom Zone."

"But they escaped."

"Yes."

"And they had to die because even if you put them back there, they could escape again and because they could have gotten their powers back… but how could you know they would get their powers back?"

"I knew it was possible because I got mine back."

"Wait a minute. What are you not telling me here?"

"Put it together, Richard."

"You lost your powers in the Fortress of Solitude, got them back and then used the device to defeat General Zod?"

"Something like that, you're getting warm."

"You didn't lose your powers. It couldn't have been an accident. I can't picture Superman bumbling around the Fortress of Solitude. Clark Kent, I can see bumbling around like that…"

"Gosh-jeepers, Mr. White, I seem to have lost my powers." Clark was poking fun at himself. It felt good. It felt cathartic. It felt liberating. But there was more truth to get at here. "You're right on track, Richard. I didn't loose my powers."

"You gave them up for some reason…for some person. For a woman?"

"No for Bruce Wayne."

"Really, I always figured both you and he were straight."

Clark burst out laughing and Richard followed.

"Was it Lana?

"Not Lana. She had been with Lex by then."

"Was it Chloe?"

"No. Richard, the truth is right in front you, just like I was."

"It was Lois."

"Yes."

"And Jason is ..."

"Yes.

"Oh my God! I can't print that."

"You can print the part about General Zod, if you want."


	3. Chapter 3

DC Comics and Bad Hat Harry Productions own the sand box. I just get to play in it. Trish will appear courtsey of Speakfire.

Standing on the roof of the Daily Planet building, Richard White picked up the small led box and opened it. "Kryptonite!"

"Yes," gasped Clark Kent who began back peddling. "And it… makes me… feel weak… and sick to my stomach," he continued, panting between phrases. "Would you close that…please?" When he got to the wall surrounding the roof of the Daily Planet building, he slumped down it.

"Hmmm. Not just yet." Richard stepped over to where Clark half squatted against the wall. He put the open with the exposed Kryptonite in Clark's face and observed for a moment. The blood slowly drained from the Kryptonian's face. His breathing began to grow ragged. "Guess you really are Superman." He closed the lid on the box.

"As if crushing a lump of coal into a diamond with my bare hands wasn't proof enough…"

"I'm an editor. I always want confirmation from multiple sources.

"You know this is all a little sudden," Richard continued. "First you tell me that you're Superman. Then you tell me that you're my son's biological father. What am I meant to do, just walk away from the woman I love? Should I back out of the life of the boy I've raised?"

"Come on Richard, think." Clark straightened up and took off his glasses. He stretched out his arms and basked in the sun. "We have to think our way through this, or we won't arrive at the best decisions for on how to raise our son."

"I'm guessing that you don't want me out of the way. You said our, that tells me that you want both of us to be part of his life."

"Yes." Clark turned to face Richard, "Lois told me that you're a good man." Looking down lightly he added, "And I was gone a long time." He paused for a moment and then looked Richard squarely in the eye, "Above all you are the man Jason knows as Dad. What kind of a man would I be if I just swept in out of no where and demanded to take over as the primary male figure in his life and in his mother's life?"

"That would be selfish and conceited."

"What kind of a man would you be if you just backed away on your own or let me come in and take away from you the family that is yours?"

"That would be cowardly."

"I certainly don't want to set that kind of example for my son. Do you, for yours?"

"No."

"Good, especially since we're talking about the same little boy. If we give him a stable, loving, honorable environment to grow up in, then we can be sure that he will always use any powers he gains for Good."

"If he grows up in broken home, filled with jealousy and regret then he won't be the kind of man who will use his powers wisely."

"I wouldn't think so, no."

"You want to work together on this."

"Yes, absolutely. Besides, if I really wanted you out of the way, there are at least a dozen ways I could get that and no Crime Scene Unit this side of Polaris or Kochab could prove it was me."

"I know that Polaris is the North Star, but refresh me, what's Kochab?"

"It's a star not far from Krypton. That was a joke, Richard. Relax and laugh. Or not. That's why I travel the world as a superhero instead of as a stand up comic."

Richard cracked up. "So why the kryptonite?"

"I gave it to you to equalize things between us, so that you never have to fear me."

"But my son…_our…_ son, Jason, will it hurt him?"

"I don't know for sure. You should ask Lois. I expect Lex Luthor had some on the yacht while she and Jason were there."

"When Jason starts getting his powers…well, My God what will we do?"

"It's a quandary isn't."

"Does Lois know?"

"She knows, but she doesn't remember. I hypnotized her before I left for Krypton," Clark cocked an ear toward the elevator house. "Speak of the angel."

"Is she coming up here, to look for us?"

"Yes, she's on her way up. I can hear her heartbeat and breathing in the elevator, but she hasn't said anything about why she's coming up here, so I don't know."

"Okay. What are we going to say?"

Clark put his glasses back on, buttoned his collar, rolled down his sleeves and pulled a tie out of his pocket.

"So, that's how you want to play it, eh?"

"Yeah. Just follow my lead."

Hinges creaked and Lois Lane stepped out on to the roof of the Daily Planet building with a cigarette in one hand and her Zippo in the other. She had a self absorbed look in her eyes and a devious grin like she was really going to enjoy that Virginia Slim. When she saw Richard and Clark she immediately put both hands behind her back and started whistling.

A slightly worried look passed from Richard to Clark. Clark smiled confidently and rose up just a bit on the balls of his feet.

"He was here, Lois, you just missed him." Clark said.

"Who? Superman?" Lois almost stammered, aghast that the Man of Steel would talk to anyone else in the press but her, especially Clark. "Aw, drat. I mean, wshew" the girl reporter made a sighing sound and wiped some imagined sweat off her brow while her face struggled to express at once relief, curiosity, and the ashen look of someone appalled by what she just heard. Drawing a breath, Lois continued, "That was a close one. Maybe if he gets another contact here I can go back to serious journalism and leave the superhero beat to the likes of Snapper Carr. Did he ask about me?"

Richard looked at Clark, who gestured to him that it was his turn to talk.

"No. Clark and I were talking about my experiences in the war, about my lost patrol."

"He said that he had heard us talking about that and he wanted to talk to us about General Zod. He thought perhaps Richard could understand what he'd had to do tell the world about it in a direct matter of fact way with out sensationalism."

"Oh. So he didn't ask about me. What about Jason, did he ask about Jason?"

"Why would Superman ask about Jason, Lois?" queried Clark with a confused look on his face.

Richard pulled his Palm Pilot out of his pocket and declared, "Great shades of Elvis! Clark, we have a deadline fast approaching if you're going get that Blackout piece in the evening edition."

"Jeepers! Sorry, Miss Lane, I've got to talk to Jimmy and Trish about the art for that piece. Jimmy was supposed to get me some pictures of the shipping magnate's house where the whole thing started."

And with that Clark and Richard made their way to the elevator. "Are you going to fly back up there and talk to her?"

"Yes. I'm not going to tell her until we agree, but it needs to be soon. We have Jason's future to consider."


	4. Interlude in a Dark Room, Rev 2

Chapter 4 Revised and expanded. I added more activity to the dialogue. I reworked Trish's part make her appear more perceptive. Just because she represents the audience here, doesn't mean...well actually it means she must be highly perceptive, right. I have the smartest fans in fandom, right guys and gals. Lets have cheer for all of us fans!

DC Comics and Bad Hat Harry Productions own the sandbox. I get to play in it. And one day, I will be good enough to make some money off of stuff like this.

Back in the newsroom Jimmy, Trish and Jason were crowded in the darkroom developing old fashioned photographs. "Whyn't you use your digicamera, Uncle Jimmy?" Jason sloshed prints around in the developing solutions, with a huge smile on his face. Anyone who looked would have thought the five-year-old was just playing, but Jimmy and Trish knew that this kid was quite adept at coaxing the image out of the print.

"My digital camera, Jason?" Jimmy looked over from where he was working with the negatives.

"Yeah, the one you hook up to the computer and send your pictures up on the screen through a cable, like Trish does with her music." Jason passed two prints up to Trish who clothes-pinned them up to the drying line

"I just had switch back to old fashioned film to cover Superman. I never got anything but a blur of pixels when I tried to photograph Superman with the digital. But with good old fashioned F-stops and photo chemistry, I get crystal clear black and white pictures every time."

"What about your developing team?" Trish punched Jimmy playfully in the shoulder.

Olson's face grew ashen with mock horror as though Trish's punch had caused him to foul up some prints. All three cracked up with laughter.

"Of course, I couldn't do it without you guys." Jimmy passed another sheet of photo paper to Jason.

Jason took the photo with his tongs and began rotating it through the solutions. His process looked completely haphazard and he never quite did it the same, but the pictures always came out looking fantastic. "I get why you use these kind of pitchers for Superman, but why not use the dig-i-tal camera for these pictures of buildings?"

"The lad has a point there, Mr. Olsen." Trish chimed in, "if you use the black and white for Superman pictures, why not use the digital for these pictures of the rich oceanliner guy's house?"

"Because this is part of a Superman story."

"How do you know?"

"May I borrow these?" Jimmy took an extra set of tongs off of Jason's solution table and pulled an 8x10 out of the last solution. He held it proudly in front of the red light. "This picture right here makes it a Superman story."

"Ooo-oh" said Jason.

"I don't get it," said Trish. "What does that huge crystal splitting apart the model train set and cracking the basement floor have to with Superman?"

"The crystals look like the ones from Superman's temple up in the mountains and like the ones out in the ocean, the ones he picked up and lifted up into or-bit." Jason commented wide-eyed.

"So why did Superman put his crystals in the basement of the oceanliner guy's house?" Trish asked. "I'm sure that you're not telling me everything."

"It wasn't him," Jimmy processed the last of the negatives as Jason handed more prints out of the developing solution up to Trish added them to the group already drying.

"It was the bad bald man," added Jason as he deftly transferred partially developed prints from one pan filled with developing chemicals to another.

"Okay, tell me more," Trish encouraged Jason to continue. That couldn't possibly be the whole of the matter.

"The bad bald man stole the crystals from Superman's Temple up the mountains. And he tried a spearmint in the basement."

"Lex Luthor, and he performed an experiment, Jason," added Jimmy

"Thanks Uncle Jimmy," Jason switched the prints in the solution again. "The bad bald man did one of those in the basement of the house to see how it would work before he tried in the ocean."

"I get it, now" Trish brightened up. "I remember reading in the Society Pages of the Daily Planet, how Lex Luthor married the widow of the oceanliner guy. You're saying this crystal split the basement of her house, right before the black out last week."

"Yes. These before-and-after pictures from Google Earth confirm it. And I think Miss Lane and Jason here" Jimmy mussed the tyke's hair gently, "can place Luthor at the house around that same time can't you, big guy?"

Jason crossed his arms and stomped over to the corner. "Don't want to talk about that day. Not till I get a chance to talk to Superman about it first."

Trish stooped down and put a hand on Jason's cheek, "Why not Jay Jay?"

"Jay Jay is a jet plane on a TV show for babies. I'm a big kid. My name is Jason. I hafta talk about it with Superman. He'll understand."

Jimmy ran the last print through the solutions as he listened to the exchange between Trish and Jason. "Well, that about wraps it up. Let's go see if Mr. Clark and Mr. Richard are down off the roof. Mr. Clark needs to pick his photos for the story."


	5. A Ray of Light

DC Comics and Bad Hat Harry Productions still own what they own. Trish still appears courtesy of Speakfire.

Jimmy, Trish and Jason stepped out of the darkroom and looked around the much brighter newsroom. "Dad, Mr. Clark!" Jason ran up to Richard and gave his leg a hug.

Clark waived hi to Jason as he walked on over to his desk and picked up his blazer.

Richard reached down and patted his son on the back. Then squatted down hugged him and picked him up. "Oh, Dad, me and Trish helped Jimmy develop his pitchers of the bad bald man's house. There's one there that we've got to show Superman."

"Really?" Richard looked over at Clark and tried to gesture with his hands while holding his son.

"Yeah, it's a pitcher of a 'speriment in the basement with a huge crystal. It looks just like the ones where the bad bald man took me and Mommy in his boat."

"You don't say." Richard looked Jason in the eyes with rapt attention.

"I do say."

"What else did you guys develop pictures of?"

"Mmmm, the house? I don't remember the other ones too good."

"Trish?" queried the editor, "What about the other photos."

"Let's see…" the intern began. "Mr. Olson had us develop pictures of the ocean liner guy's house, the Metropolis Power and Light Offices, one of the power plants, an MPL official in front of the power plant, you know stuff like that."

"Daddy, I know you gotta go get the paper to the presses, but can me and Mr. Clark take these pitchers up to the roof and show 'em to Superman? I gotta talk to him about something anyway."

"I don't know, sport," said Clark trying on his fedora hat with the blazer. He studied himself in a reflection in the dark monitor on Lois's desk. He appeared not to like what he saw. "Your mom is up there probably waiting for him right now."

"Then we gotta go, Mr. Clark. We gotta go now, before he finishes talking to her and flies off."

Ever the editor, Richard looked seriously at the group. "Jimmy, Clark, you two choose a picture, I'll take Jason up to the roof." Father and son made their way over to the elevators.

Jimmy and Clark looked at each other. Trish watched carefully. Both the photographer and reporter slipped back into wordless communication they had shared years before when they worked together all the time, before Clark and Superman had both dropped off the face of the earth. "Show me," said Clark.

Jimmy spread them out, "The best one is the one of the MPL guy in front of the power plant."

"I think so, too. Send that one down along with the story. Thanks, Jimmy."

"Trish," Clark focused on the intern as though she were the most important person in the room. "I need you to continue sorting those old story files that Mr. White and Mr. Richard passed on to us.

"Read the first two paragraphs to get the gist of what it's about. Anything that you don't actually remember happening, put in the large box. The rest put on top of my notebook computer, okay?"

As the teen listened, she wondered if this was how it felt to talk to Superman. She wondered if Superman made people feel like they were the most important person around. She decided that he must. Otherwise he wouldn't be very super, just powerful. When she looked back up Clark was gone.


	6. Storm Clouds and Sunshine, Rev 2

Disclaimer: Jerry Segal and Joe Schuster created the sandbox, DC Comics and Bad Hat Harry Productions own it, and I get to play in it.

Superman settled down toward the roof of the Daily Planet building. With his arms opened slightly and his face turned toward the sun, he basked, soaking up its radiance.

"Can't a girl get a smoke up here in peace?" While Lois's face smiled, her eyes betrayed some sadness and pain.

Hovering back up a few feet above the roof deck, his cape billowing up in the breeze, Superman saw the perspiration on the backs of her hands, heard her slightly accelerated breathing and heart rate. Even after five years away in space, Lois was like an open book to him. Seeing her inner turmoil, caused him no small amount of consternation. He had been in love with Lois since his first day on the job at the Daily Planet. His heart went out to her, but he was Superman, the world's rock to lean on, he had to project calmness and grace under pressure. "Is that how you really feel Lois?"

"Well, let's see; shall we?" Lois took a drag on her cigarette. "How do I feel, hmm?" She began walking across the roof away from Superman. She called out over her shoulder, "I'm winning a Pulitzer for master criminal Lex Luthor's favorite column ever. My son threw a grand piano across a room. And whom I thought was one great love of my life has finally returned from the stars. How do you think I feel?"

"Conflicted?"

Spinning around to face him, Lois called out, "Yes!"

"Do you really want me to leave you alone up here?"

"How should I know?" Lois walked over toward Superman, who lowered himself back down to the roof. Burying her face on his Kryptonian crest, she pounded her fist on his chest. "Oooow." She shook her hand. "I'm a mess right now. Do you realize how many nights I cried myself to sleep while you were gone?"

"And who was there for you?" Superman spoke softly into her ear. He put one arm gently around her shoulders, expressing strength and his confidence their abilities to work through the emotions and find truth.

Sniffling, Lois answered, "Richard was there for me, either in person or on the phone. I never really explained it but I think he sort of knew."

"Try to pull yourself together Lois. Richard and Jason are coming back up."

She sniffled again and grabbed Superman's cape to wipe her tears. The tears didn't soak in, just beaded up and ran down. "Maybe Clark will be down there." Lois shuffled off toward the elevator house, "He helped when I asked about you not saying good bye," her posture grew more erect and her strides, more purposeful with each step.

"Ah, yes, Clark." Superman called.

Lois turned her face back toward him. She dabbed the tears off her face with a tissue from her purse.

Superman continued, "I met him when I came here to talk with Richard. He seems like quite the milquetoast on the surface, but I believe he has great strength within."

"Alright," she stopped for the moment, "but you and I have got to talk about Jason. He's allergic to Kryptonite and he threw that piano. It doesn't make sense."

"It will soon enough." Superman smiled

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look behind you."

Richard and Jason emerged onto the roof. Lois ground out her cigarette, took a deep breath, straightened up and ruffled Jason's hair affectionately as she walked past. She smiled at Richard and muttered something about having to find Clark. The hinges of the door to the elevator house creaked and she was gone from sight.

"Hi, Superman!" Jason said and rushed over like he was going to hug him. Then he stopped short and looked down for a moment.

Superman put a hand out palm facing up. "Give me five, my man."

"No one says that any more." Jason looked back up at Superman. "You talk like Mr. Clark. He always says things that are out of style like 'swell' and 'jeepers.'"

"So what do kids say these days?"

Extending a fist, he said, "They don't say anything. They just look at each other in the eyes and touch fists."

"Like this?" Superman looked into Jason's eyes touched his fist to Jason's.

"Yeah, like that."

Richard took a step back and watched the natural rapport between these two. It was like instant companionship. They understood each other.

"Oh, my dad and I have photos for you."

Richard pulled the pictures of the shipping magnate's mansion out of his blazer and brought them over. "Thank you." Superman flipped through them quickly, and picked out the one of the huge crystal in the shattered basement."Tell me about this one."

"Uncle Jimmy and me and Trish figured it out. The bad bald man tried a 'speriment in his basement. He put a small piece of your crystal in the water to see what it would do before he made all those ones out in the ocean."

"And this was the result?" Superman's eyes were wide.

"Yeah, I guess. Uncle Jimmy took that pitcher a few days ago. I think while you were in the hospital."

"Very good explaining Jason," said Superman. "Now, I understand you have something to talk to me about?"

Jason's voice lowered with a note of concern, "Yeah, but I don't know if I can talk about it in front of my dad."

Leaning close, the Man of Steel asked, "Does you dad love you?"

"He does." Jason's face brightened and his eyes misted slightly as he thought about the depth of Richard's feelings and demonstrated commitment to him. "More than anything in the world. Except maybe for Mommy."

"Then you can say anything in front of him." Superman glanced up at Richard expressing confidence and trust with his eyes while his left hand gestured for Richard to move back just a bit and give them some space.

Jason paused and the asked with an expression of wonder, "How did I throw that piano?"

Superman thought fast. Over a hundred times, he had rehearsed the moment when he would tell his son the first part of the truth about them. But he always envisioned himself beginning the revelation. Nevertheless an open, direct question like that deserved an equally honest and open answer, but how to phrase it...? "You made my strength your own," he said taking a knee and gently placing his right hand on the lad's left shoulder, "Just as I made Jor-El's strength my own."

"Who is Jor-El?"

"Jor-El was my father."

"Can I meet him?" Jason's excitement was beginning to build.

"No." Superman's face showed a wistful, distant sadness. "He died on Krypton when I was only a few months old, way before you were born."

"I don't get it." Jason began backing up. "I have a Dad." He looked at Richard. "Richard, right over there," Jason pointed to his dad using his whole hand. "He's my Dad. How can I have two Dads?"

"I had a Dad, too. His name was Jonathan. Jonathan was a farmer in Kansas. He died in Kansas, also before you were born."

"Is my Dad gonna die?" Jason looked concerned.

"When we're all very old, when it's his time, then Richard will die." Superman reassured.

Jason paused. He looked up and away. Superman could see the wheels turning in his son's mind.

His son continued, "So, you're my father, like Jor-El was your father. And Richard is my Dad, like Jonathan was yours."

"Right you are, sport." Superman smiled his approval.

Jason looked pleased with himself. "What's your name?"

"I think you already know that."

"Jor-El Junior?"

Superman chuckled, "No. Try again."

"You are Mr. Clark."

"Right again." Superman smiled again, even broader this time.

Jason looked tentative as though he weren't entirely sure he wanted to ask the next question. He looked over at his dad who smiled encourageingly, "Did you have a Mom here?"

"Yes. Her name is Martha, she lives in Kansas."

Jason's face brightened. Clark's mom, his grandma, was still alive. "So, I can see her?"

"Yes. I think we all will see her soon."

"What are we gonna tell my Mom?"

"We don't exactly have to tell her, not really," mused Superman, facing away from Jason and standing erect, floating up off the roof of the Daily Planet building just a bit. "I could just remove the hypnotic suggestion that's keeping the memories surrounding Jason's conception suppressed."

"But would that be the courageous thing to do?" pushing himself up from his relaxed pose leaning against the elevator house, Richard posed a rhetorical question, gesturing with his left hand.

"No, it that would be taking the easy way out," replied the Man of Steel.

"We hafta tell her," pleaded Jason. "How else is she gonna know?"

"We'll tell her son," Richard rubbed the boy's back reassuringly.

"We'll tell her soon," affirmed Superman.

"What's that chirping sound?" Jason's bright eyes darted around.

Richard reached for his Palm Pilot. "It's not mine."

"It's mine," from the folds of his cape, Superman removed a Blackberry.

"Is it from the President?" Jason's face swelled with pride.

Chuckling, Superman replied, "No. No, I didn't give him my email address. This message is from the Space Agency. They're reminding me about an asteroid headed for Earth. They asked me to handle it for them back in 2000."

"When does it get here?" Jason asked.

"Middle of next year. My plan is to fly out there once a week and slow it down just bit. That way it will fall closer to the sun and miss us."

"You know the Pulitzer ceremony was rescheduled for the end of this week." Richard changed the subject. Slowing down an asteroid might be an abstract exercise in celestial mechanics to Superman, but it would mean global cataclysm to the lad if the conversation continued

"Mommy's gonna get a Pullitzer trophy. Like my dad's baseball trophy."

"Will you be there?" Richard leaned his back against the elevator house, with his right hand in his pants pocket, looking to all the world like he was perfectly relaxed.

"I'll probably go with bow-tie and glasses, rather than the cape." Superman responded.

"Bruce Wayne is hosting it. The guest speaker is going to be someone you should meet." Richard walked back over and collected the photos.

"Oh, Really? Bruce, huh, do tell." Superman rolled his eyes.

"Wait, you know Bruce?" Richard stopped, completely still. "Do you know him as Clark or as Superman?"

"You don't really want to know the answer to that question." Superman held his right hand out flat and moved it slightly up and away.

"I don't want to know the answer?"

"You want to tell me about the guest speaker." Superman made the hand gesture again.

"Of course I want to tell you about the guest speaker, she's been asking to meet you." Richard looked slightly puzzled.

Jason burst out laughing and Superman chuckled slightly.

"What just happened here?" Richard took a step back out of the shadow cast by the giant globe atop the Daily Planet building. "Were you trying some kind of Krypton hypnotism or something?"

"No, Dad, Superman was doing a Jedi mind trick, like Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars." Jason drew an imaginary lightsaber and did some swashbuckling sword fight moves.

"You saw those movies? Did Superman just made a Star Wars joke?" Richard gestured with both hands framing a picture of Superman as thought it were a Kodak moment.

Jason stopped his imaginary lightsaber duel for a moment. "Of course, Dad everyone has seen Star Wars. Man I can't wait for Episode IV – A New Hope, when does that come out?" Jason moved his right hand to the side and pushed with his left then jumped back into duel.

"Of course, Richard. If anyone ever makes a movie about me, I want it to be George Lucas or Richard Donner."

"How 'bout Bryan Singer, Superman," Jason called over his shoulder still battling an imaginary Sith Lord. "he made X-Men."

"Weren't those the icky mutant movies?" Superman scrunched up his face, slightly.

"Yeah, they were great. All my friends at school love them." Jason's face looked dreamy for a moment, then he abruptly changed the subject, "Come on, Dad, tell him about the Amazon Princess."

"Don't you mean the Princess from Alderaan?" asked Superman.

"No, he's talking about the Pulitzer ceremony again." Richard looked calm and collected once more. "The guest speaker, Princess Diana of Themyscara, Consul General to Metropolis, Gotham and New York City, has been asking to meet you."

"Not another stuffy diplomat?" Superman exaggerated a mock complaint.

"No, she's da bomb. She played soccer with my class at school." Jason jogged back over toward Superman, dribbling an imaginary soccer ball. "And she's even buds with Mommy."

"Lois did an interview with her while you were gone. We've all been friends ever since."

Jason stopped and looked up solemnly at Superman, "She knocked down bullets just like you do, Superman."

Another chirping sounded. Jason reached in his pocket and pulled out an iPod. "It's not mine," Jason kept a straight face.

This time Richard and Superman both laughed heartily.

Superman was still holding his blackberry. "Yup," he glanced down at it. "12.30 Eastern Time, I need to go change into my suit and tie. I want to go meet Trish's journalism class this afternoon. It runs from 13.15 till 14.00. I've got to jet, guys. I'm taking the subway."

"Really, why do that when you could fly?" Richard was chasing after Jason trying to keep him from dribbling his imaginary soccer ball too close to the edge of the roof.

"So, I can work." Superman made typing motions with his hands. "I'm going to organize some notes in my laptop for a feature story about online games that your uncle said I could write for the Sunday Magazine."

Superman started to fly off.

"Eh-hem" said Jason.

Superman looked down and saw that Jason wanted a hug. He glanced over at Richard who smiled approval. Maybe this whole thing could work out after all. Superman knelt down and traded a gentle hug with Jason.

Jason looked up into Superman's blue eyes, "When are you gonna come to my school?"

"We'll talk about that tomorrow."

Richard offered his hand. Superman reached up with one hand and shook, then pulled the other man down for a half hug, with a vigorous manly pat on the back. "We're all in this together now." The three stood and bumped fists. Superman zipped skyward.

Moments later, Clark emerged from the washroom. Lois walked over, "There you are. I want to talk to you. You were such a help when we talked about saying goodbye."

"Lois, hi." Clark breezed past her pulling his tie up to his collar and buttoning his vest. He grabbed his blazer and started to put it on over the vest.

"You know, Clark, this is the second time this week you've worn a blazer and khakis." Lois said without even glancing up from her computer screen. "That's really not like you. And that vest so doesn't go with the blazer and khakis."

"Oh, really, Lois?"

"Yeah, you should read GQ or the J. Crew Catalogue or something." She called over her shoulder, looking this time. Lois stood and walked over to Clark's desk.

She took his blazer, while he unbuttoned his vest. "I'm really in a hurry, Lois. I'm meeting Trish's journalism class this afternoon. If I'm not on the subway in ten minutes, I'll be late."

"I'll give you a ride."

"Through midtown traffic?"

"Yeah, I took the NASCAR Weekend with my guys last year, while you were gone. I don't understand that sport, but I definitely understand fast driving."

She grabbed her keys, "Come on, Smallville, time's a wastin'."

Clark grabbed his laptop bag, "Er, why don't you talk with Richard, I really have to, ah, get some work done on the train ride."

"I can't talk to him about this. I can't really talk to Superman about it either. Not until I understand my own feelings better. So, that's why I need to talk to you, Clark." Lois looked up and Clark was gone.


	7. moonlit interlude

Same disclaimer, same owners, same players.

Later that night while Jason was sleeping, Lois and Richard walked hand in hand by the river, along the edge of their property.

"You know week before last when we were talking about my earliest articles on Superman?" Lois looked at Richard then looked away toward the moon rising over the horizon.

"Yeah, I asked you if you were in love with him." Richard spoke with his characteristic confidence and understanding.

"Well, I think I lied when I said I wasn't," she paused and took a deep breath. "I can't quite remember… there was something happened that happened before he left, something up north in the mountains. Then there was that article in the Planet's Tuesday Science Feature about the Hubble Space Telescope sighting Krypton, and then he left. I was in love with him."

"Oh?" Richard knew his and Clark and Jason's side of this. But Lois as usual was the wild card here. He didn't expect her to run off with Jason. Or without him either for that matter.

"Yeah, but now that he's back..." trailing off, Lois stopped and held Richard's hand tightly as he took another step. "Look bear with me, okay, I have to process these feelings and it's not going where you might think it is…okay?"

"Sure, honey. I'm here for you, now that he's back, you feel what?" Richard wasn't sure quite where she was going with this. He just wanted her to keep going, knowing that he was paying attention.

"Well, a while back I felt was a yearning and longing for him to come back. But that faded." She took both of his hands trying to connect. She had to share these feelings with him. Richard deserved to know the truth; she wanted to give him confidence that she was with him, not going to run off.

"And…keep going." Richard added, open and encouraging.

"Well, you were always there, always so patient and understanding, always so good with Jason. That means so much."

Richard squeezed Lois's hand gently.

"I realized that being in love with Superman is like having a crush on a movie star. A girl can be in love with superstars like Vince Vaughan or Brandon Routh all she wants, but one day she wakes up and realizes that the celebrity crush was just a dream. Reality is the man she's with day in and day out. Reality is you."

"Wow, thanks."

"I mean think about it. If Jason gets scraped up at school, either one of us can rush over to get him. You can wash him up while I bandage him. You can take him fishing. I don't have to worry that while we're in the middle of a romantic evening you're going to have to fly off to stop a mudslide in a jungle or rescue a sinking ferry boat in the Indian Ocean, or bend steel with your bare hands to stop a robbery.

"I was in love with Superman. And I was jealous of the whole world. But now, I've grown up a bit, and I'm in love with you. You are a good man, Richard White."

"Thanks. I love you, too, Lois. I always will."


	8. So, Where was Clark?

Disclaimer: These stories are based on characters and situations created by Jerry Siegal, Joel Schuster, Mario Puzo, Richard Donner, Richard Lester, Bryan Singer, et al, and owned by DC Comics, Warner Bros. Pictures and Bat Harry Productions. Trish and her parents appear courtesy of Speakfire. I'm not making any money from this, but I'm sure enjoying it.

Clark put on his fedora hat as he walked out of the Chinese restaurant. He shook hands and thanked Trish's parents for dinner. The reporter patted his intern on the back and thanked her for all her help over the last few days. He reflected on the courage and love her parents possessed: The teen's father was a firefighter with FDM and her mother, an Emergency Room nurse at Metropolis General. They had taken turns traveling over to New York City to help with the rescue efforts at Ground Zero starting on that fateful day six years ago.

Clark offered a silent prayer of thanks that Trish's mother hadn't been on duty a few days ago when he had survived his own fateful day of kryptonite poisoning and falling from orbit. He had already shared his secret identity with Richard and his son. He didn't really want to take anyone else into his confidence yet.

He thought about the love and commitment they had spoken of to be there for each other and their daughter, to help each other thru traumatic experiences of rescuing people from crisis and treating them afterwards. In a way it reminded him of his own parents who had worked together to keep the farm in business through hard times and abundance.

Clark reflected on the life he had expected to share with Lois. Somehow he'd expected himself and Lois end up together, not just as collaborators and colleagues at the Planet, but with a white picket fence and a split level in the suburbs. There are some things in this world that never change. And some things do change. He suddenly felt claustrophobic.

He looked around; on autopilot, his feet had guided him to a subway entrance. The C-Line would take him back to his old apartment at 344 Clinton Street. He didn't want to go there. Thinking he sensed people pressing in on him, he searched his feelings and realized it wasn't the light crowd flocking to restaurants and taverns, but his own conflicted feelings about Lois, that were closing in on him. He needed to get up into the sky, to feel the breeze on his face and hear the fluttering of the wind through his cape.

Clark thought to look for a phone booth, but in this age of cell phones, Palm Pilots and Blackberrys he was fairly sure that the only one left in town was a display in the Museum of Industry and Technology. He settled for a revolving door in a nearby hotel and soon soared skyward, wearing his trademark red, yellow and blue uniform.

"The world doesn't need a savior." Lois's words echoed in his mind. "And neither do I," Little more than a week ago during his first conversation with her wearing cape and Kryptonian shield, those words had hit him like a slap in the face. He didn't immediately recall what had come after that. He was sure he'd said something like, "I'm always around," and floated off into the sky.

Again his mind wandered to another day, when outside outside her house he'd heard talking with Richard in the kitchen …This time the whole exchange began to drift through his mind. Then he realized that he was distractedly cruising right through the airspace where the 1145 British Airways flight from Metropolis to London was due any moment. Superman quickly climbed up to the edge of space. He didn't want to have to worry about dodging airliners.

He let the memory from that evening unwind in his mind.

Richard: Were you in love with him?

Lois: He was Superman. Everyone was in love with him.

Richard: Yeah, but were you?

Lois: No.

Superman recalled Lois saying otherwise, years ago. He had given up his powers for her, had every intention of spending the rest of his life with her. But that was before the battles with General Zod. Lois's declarations of devotion had come before he'd hidden her memories their brief affair. The "No" of just recently resounded in his mind. The mother of his son. Said she said she was not in love with him. It. Hurt. Like. Hell.

He wanted to swim into the depths of the ocean and scream where no one would hear him. Thinking better of it, the Man of Steel decided to burn off his frustration and pain in an extra intervention with that asteroid the Space Agency wanted him to take care of. Hearing Lois and Richard taking a walk together around their riverfront property confirmed his choice of a short trip into space: he did not want to have to hear their conversation. He darted back to his Fortress and donned his grey and black capeless environment suit.

As he climbed out of the atmosphere, Superman tapped a control on one of his sleeves and a containment field appeared around his head. Sensing the strength of the sun's glare from behind, the suit made the containment field reflective on that side as well as clear in the front. The suit's materials began to process his exhaled breath, converting carbon dioxide into oxygen and increasing nitrogen content.

The suit projected a set of holographic control images in front of Superman's face, showing the bearing, carom and best relative velocity of travel to the asteroid in question. The Man of Steel focused on those coordinates and increased his velocity.

As he climbed out of the Earth's gravity, his thoughts drifted back to Lois and his feelings for her. Somehow, he was still in love with her. Even after all those months and years in space, going to Krypton and back, he was still in love with Lois Lane. What are we going to do about that? She's moved on.

Could he earn back her affections? Did he want to? Superman now had a son to think of, a son who would grow up with powers he had no way to predict. He could only hope to influence how his son would choose to use those powers. The Man of Steel knew he must model the values and ethics that would properly guide the use of his son's powers. He knew that attempting to replace the man his son called Dad, and steal back the affections of his son's mother would teach the lad the wrong lesson.

Superman reflected that he had chosen wisely in befriending Richard. He now had that friendship and loyalty, as well as his love of his son, reinforcing each other. Despite her moving on, in spite of Lois's statement that she didn't love him, Superman knew that he still loved her. Well, he'd still loved Lana for months after she had taken up with Lex Luthor. Doubtless he would continue to have feelings for Lois for a very long time: she was, after all, the mother of his son.

Perhaps he had taken her for granted. No, there was no perhaps about it. He had definitely assumed that as long as it took him to see what was left of Krypton, she would still be waiting for him.

He reflected further, looked deeper inside himself. He had actually thought more about Lois on his way back to Earth, after he had seen the shattered remnants of Krypton and come to terms with his killing of Zod and his acolytes. When he had left Earth, he had been consumed with his need to see what remained of Krypton, to verify his place is the order of things, and wracked with guilt over killing Zod.

Superman slowed and matched velocities with the asteroid. Then he moved up and held it with his hands for a few seconds. These seconds allowed time for his suit's internal sensors to derive the asteroid's velocity and momentum with respect to the sun and the earth far more accurately than his mere mental estimate. The suit projected a holographic dot over the spot where Superman could best apply his force to slow the asteroid. The Man of Steel positioned himself appropriately and began to fly in the direction opposite the asteroid's momentum, thus slowing it down. As it slowed it would slide down the sun's gravity well, eventually out of a collision course with earth.

While he slowed the asteroid he continued his musings. During his voyage to Krypton, Superman had searched out the laws of his home world, encoded in the crystals from his father, Jor-El. He had determined that killing Zod and his acolytes had been a legal extension of the capital sentence that had exiled them into the Phantom Zone. He had searched his own heart and knew that he was not a killer, the old fashioned family values of his Dad and the teachings of his Father still held sway in his mind and heart.

But Lois…he had just left, knowing that he had no choice, believing that if he had even taken a moment to say goodbye to her, he might not have the strength to go and do what he must.

He would have to grieve his loss of Lois and learn to accept their new roles in each other's lives. All of this would be helped along by reminding her of the whole truth. He didn't think that it was entirely fair to drop the weight of this knowledge on her the week of her Pulitzer award. But he had to allow that she might have different thoughts about that.

Superman's suit signaled the time to start his return to earth. He backed away from the asteroid, launched himself in a return trajectory. With his mind settled about Lois he knew that heart would take its own time. He pulled his blackberry out of a pocket and began to write up his report to the Space Agency. He also worked thru his interview notes from Trish's schoolmates about online gaming for the Sunday Magazine article.


	9. Dark Clouds on the Horizon

Same disclaimer applies

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Richard rolled over in bed and hit the snooze button on the alarm clock. But it didn't stop. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. He sat up in bed next to Lois and before he could focus on the Beeping sound, he thought for a moment about how wonderful she was. Then he realized that the sound was his cell phone. It was the ring he had programmed for his uncle's office phone. It was a blaring and jarring sound, much like an alarm clock. It stopped ringing.

Richard reflected that the call must have rolled over to voice mail. He looked at the clock: just after five a.m. He could go back to sleep for an hour. Sleep reached up and grabbed him before his head the pillow. Then that ring jarred him awake again. He looked at the clock. Barely a minute had elapsed. Richard picked up the phone and opened it. "Just a minute, Chief," grabbing a robe off the floor next the bed and hoping it was his, Richard took the phone and made his way across the hall and into the home office he shared with Lois. Richard thought he heard his uncle shouting "Don't call me Chief," but he couldn't be; he didn't have the phone to his ear yet.

The International Section Editor considered sitting down for a long moment, "Do you know what time it is, Uncle Perry?" But decided he'd be more likely to stay awake standing up. He rubbed his face bleary eyed. After their moon lit walk, he Lois had stayed up for a while enjoying each other with renewed passion. He gladly accepted the consequences for that. He was in love.

"Don't you give me that Uncle line, boy." The Editor-in-Chief barked through the phone. "Not at five a.m. Where - -"

"So, you do know what time it is." Richard thought out loud sleepily, stifling a yawn.

"- - were you last night." Perry stood in his office looking through the glass at Richard's empty desk.

Richard began to pace, "With Lo - - none of your business."

"This is your Editor-in-Chief speaking and unless you want to find yourself in Ran Dather's shoes, you'll shut up, wake up and listen to me."

"Dather? The disgraced news anchor who quite the broad cast network last year over forged documents used in a Presidential campaign news story?"

"Yes. Listen to me or I'll fire you and you can be looking for work just like him."

"Okay, boss." Richard shut up. He plugged his digital recorder into his phone. He wasn't completely awake yet, and he wanted a record of this conversation for later use.

Perry had the scent of a really good story here, actually more than one. He spoke enthusiastically, but with a note of caution. "I talked with Matt Drudge last night. He heard that Randal Dather is putting together a scandal story for MSMBC. He and the cable network are trying to put each other back on the map. Dather is working on a story about Superman and why he really left."

"I'm working on that for Planet Sunday." Richard yawned. "It will go out in 103 papers across the country."

"I need you to get it ready for me this morning. I want it in the afternoon edition." The note of caution escalated to a tone of concern in the Editor in Chief's voice.

"We haven't had an afternoon edition for nearly twelve years now." The International Editor replied with disbelief.

"I know. I'm putting one out just for this story. Newsstands in Metropolis, New York and Gotham only," Perry spoke flatly, very serious and somewhat concerned.

"Why?" Richard perked up. The expense involved in an extra press run plus the carriers, even if it was only in the Tri-State/ Tri-City area, indicated the priority placed on this column.

"Drudge thinks Dather is trying to portray Superman as a murderer. Anything that taints Superman taints the Daily Planet. We've got to frame the debate before they do. I want your piece to do that."

"A murderer? Superman? That's insane. Forget murder, who has he ever even killed?" Richard's face took on new animation and his tone greater enthusiasm now that he knew Superman personally. He almost blurted something about what Jason would think, but didn't. He was waiting on Clark's lead to Lois. He certainly wasn't going to let anything slip to his uncle.

"No it isn't completely insane and Zod. Forget the piece you're working on, just for a moment, and look at the bare facts." Perry sounded thoughtful.

"Okay, I'm listening." Richard's tone expressed attentiveness.

Perry put the phone on speaker and gestured with his hands. He looked like a kid playing with action figures or a fighter pilot telling "There We Were" stories. "After a huge battle over the skies and in the streets of Metropolis, Superman hightails it up North to his Fortress, with Zod, et al in tow along with Luthor and your girlfriend."

"Fiancée." Richard corrected, enthusiastically, remembering last night.

"Whatever. Superman brings Luthor back to jail, and flies Lois back to her apartment. Zod and his henchmen are never heard from again, presumed dead: Revenge killing and that equals murder."

"No." Richard shook his head emphatically. It was war under US law and a legal execution under Kryptonian Law."

"I read your notes. Now, I need you to get in here and finish that Column."

"Get in there? I'll finish it on my laptop and wifi it over to the Planet's Editorial Page Desk."

"You will? With what laptop?"

"With the one on my desk right here two feet away from me." Richard looked over and saw that his computer bag had files and notes but no computer.

"Do you mean the one I grabbed off of your desk when I couldn't find you?" The Editor in Chief let a note of humor creep into his voice.

The morning after her moonlit walk with Richard, Lois saw a draft of Richard's column about the Man of Steel's trip to Krypton. Or more accurately, it dealt with the reasons why he had made his return voyage across the stars. She read about General Zod and his acolytes and their criminal past on Krypton. Zod and his acolytes had received a Capital Sentence for crimes against Krypton, a sentence which carried with it the death penalty. But Krypton's ruling Council of Elders, including Superman's father Jor-El, had commuted their sentences from death to lifetime exile in the nothingness of the Phantom Zone. Krypton's laws provided that if any criminals ever escaped the Phantom Zone, their sentences automatically reverted to death.

Richard's column cross-referenced the Planet's old files and covered Zod's destruction of the Artimus moon mission and their demolition of the town of East Houston, Idaho.

Everyone knew that Superman had sworn never to use his powers to kill. Killing Zod, Superman had violated this oath. But he had carried out a legal sentence delivered on Krypton. As the son of a Council member and truly the Last Son of Krypton, Superman had been uniquely positioned to carry out that sentence.

Richard further argued that, with the deployment of the U.S. Army and the Idaho National Guard into combat operations against Zod in East Houston, a state of war existed between Zod and the USA. Richard's argument continued that since the President of the United States himself had called upon Superman to intervene against Zod, Superman's actions against Zod and the Acolytes constituted a continuation of that state of war. Since Superman killed them during sanctioned combat operations, the killings were legal and just…

As she continued reading Lois's mind wandered. Neither Richard's column nor any of the earlier Daily Planet reporting mentioned the names of the Acolytes. Lois wondered why the names Ursa and Narn leapt into her mind. She recalled that Ursa had dark hair and a round face. The image of Ursa's costume covered with badges of defeated Law officers and military men floated up to the top of her mind after the names. How could she know any of this? Had it been on TV? That must be it. She had seen the news coverage, years ago. But she didn't remember anything else around that time, and her lack of clear recollection troubled her. She seemed to recall being out of the country, in Canada? At Niagara Falls?

While Lois puzzled over her recollections and her lack thereof, the Editor in Chief called her fiancé into his office.

"Richard, get in here!" No favoritism for Perry White. He rode his International Editor just as hard as the leaders of the City Bureau, the National Desk, and the Sports Editor. He might cut the Entertainment Editor some slack but that was only because her office was out in Los Angeles and Perry didn't like to yell at people over the phone.

Richard touched Lois's hand. "Gotta go, honey." She smiled back at him, looking slightly dazed. "Are you okay?" he mouthed at her, walking backward toward his uncle's office.

None of them paid attention to the TV monitors in the background. The news network's anchor came on to trumpets and fanfare, "We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this special bulletin. Radio Astronomers with the Space Agency report that they have just received and begun decryption of the last radiowave transmissions from the fabled planet Krypton. Reputed to be the long dead home world of Superman, Krypton's last radio transmissions could give us an insight into Superman's birth culture or maybe even the Man of Steel himself. Scientists report that it appears to be a combination of text in Kryptonian glyphs and video images. The first video image which so far appears to be fuzzy and warped, bears a striking resemblance to Superman, except that the gentleman in the images appears to be much older. Could this be the long lost Jor-El, father of Superman? Who can say? The image appears to be saying, Beware Zod. Beware Zod? The cosmic tyrant turned cosmic blip? The would-be world conqueror who tore up a town and then vanished following Superman up into the Canadian wilderness north of the Arctic Circle? Why should we beware Zod? And for that matter why am I reading this on a major network? This announcement should have been handed to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. Cut to Commercial."


	10. Lois Begins to Remember

Usual Disclaimer: Standing on the shoulders of Giants, Men can see far. Anyway this story is inspired by a host of sources, most notably Superman Returns. I hope that I'm doing all the characters justice. Trish is referenced courtesy of Speakfire.

"Where have you been, Clark?" Lois asked, standing up from her desk. It was a few minutes past nine and Perry had just called Richard into his office. She walked over toward him.

"Oh, hi, Lois." Clark took off his fedora hat and casually tossed it up over his head and directly onto the hat rack that stood near the entrance to the bull pen.

"I thought you were already training to be an Editor the way you've been coming in early all week." Lois casually socked Clark in the shoulder.

Clark nervously backed away. Taking off his long coat, he reflected that this place just wasn't the same without Chloe. He wondered what had become of her.

Of course when he'd been here with Chloe, she'd worked in the basement, close to the printing presses, not up here in the bullpen. Clark hung his coat up below his hat. "Oh, this morning, I was out gathering facts on the recovery efforts around the city following the earthquake week before last.

"It seems that Superman helped out with clearing the rubble. And now the city's building inspectors are all working overtime checking foundations and plumbing and everything else. Apparently the Department of Public Works has flown some inspectors out from Los Angeles and San Francisco. West Coast inspectors know more about the sort of structural damage they need to try to find in iron work inside the skyscrapers. It seems that many of the structural improvements made after Dark Thursday years ago held up quite well. It will all be in my article."

"Oh," Lois was thoughtful for a moment. "You finished up our serious story on the black out and now you're doing a bunch of feature work, hmm?"

"Yup." Clark smiled in his semi-confident milquetoast way. "It seems to be what your uncle-in-law, the Editor-in-Chief, wants me working." He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet. "I think my next one is going to be on private elementary schools, and the pressures parents put on their kids to succeed so early."

"Hmmm." Lois looked in Clark's direction but she wasn't seeing him turn away and start toward his desk. Her mind was miles away and years in the past. "What do you remember about General Zod?"

"Oh him?" Clark froze. "Why are you bringing him up? He turned slowly back around to face Lois. "Didn't Superman finish Zod off once and for all years ago, before I left to see the Lamas in Peru?"

"I saw something Richard was working on. Apparently the Man of Steel bared his soul to Richard about the whole thing," as Lois commented on Richard's conversation with the Man of Steel, looks of relief and jealousy fought to control her face. "And I just can remember it. Any of it. I remember doing that dorky expose in Niagara Falls for Perry and then nothing until the astronomers with Hubble Space Telescope reported sighting Krypton. According to the datelines in the Daily Planet that was about four days later."

"Well, gee, Lois," Clark pointed straight up in the air at an angle with his right index finger, "That was what, five and a half years ago? Why worry about four days from five years ago? And don't you have to decide what to wear to the Pulitzer Ceremony tonight?"

"No actually, I don't." She turned and grabbed her dress bag from where it was hanging on the cubical wall. "I'm wearing a dark purple neo-classical Grecian dress, with a cream colored sash." Lois partially unzipped the bag and showed Clark part of the dress. "It's just like what Diana's wearing. Except hers will be a very deep red, deeper even than Superman's cape."

"Just like Diana Princess of the Amazons?"

"Yup."

"Wouldn't that be a fashion faux pas?"

"Maybe. But it's what she and I have done every time we're in public together since I met her. She's Jason's godmother, did I ever tell you that?"

"Really?" Clark looked amazed and aghast all at the same time. "Who's his godfather, Bruce Wayne?"

"Close. It's Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Apparently, Richard's father worked with Alfred and my father during their mutual covert operations days, years ago."

"You don't say." Clark looked perplexed like his whole world had gone pearshaped.

"I do say, scouts' honor." Lois saluted. "And did I tell you who his father is?" She whispered and curled her finger indicating he should come closer.

Clark came closer.

"His father is," Lois whispered even softer this time, "Superman." The last word came out barely as a breath but Clark could have read it on her lips even without super hearing.

Clark froze. He turned pale. He looked like he was going to throw up.

Lois burst out laughing. "Oh Clark, the look on your face was priceless."

But Clark wasn't looking at her anymore. His attention was riveted to one of the monitors were a scientist from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was talking with another from the Space Agency's Very Large Array. They were discussing a computer virus that seemed to have infected their computers after processing the message the radio telescopes in the Array had pulled down apparently from Krypton.

"So, Clark, when are we going to talk? You disappeared on me the other day when you went to Trish's school."

"I took the train, Lois. It has wifi now. I brought my laptop. I had to work."

"Well?" Lois stood there flashing her 750 Watt smile, with fists on her hips and elbows straight out.

Clark was grabbing his coat and hat, "Lois. I have to go. I have to see a man about a house."

"You'll be back for the ceremony this evening, right?"

"Of course. I'm signing a lease. Not buying. Not yet anyway." And with that Clark scooped up his Blackberry and walked to the elevator.


	11. people and pieces come together

Disclaimer: Inspired by Superman I/ II/ Returns, Smallville. Owned by DC Comics, Warner Bros, Bad Hat Harry Productions, the CW, certainly not me. Clark's intern Trish is referred to courtesy of Speakfire. I just get to play in the sand box.

Writer's Note: This chapter draws more heavily on Smallville than prior chapters. This revision includes just a bit more exposition and background on details that came from Smallville, since this is the Superman Movies section.

----

Clark did his usual routine of waiting for an elevator by himself and changing out of his suit, into his uniform and flying out the top of the elevator shaft. Placing his Bluetooth ear piece, he used his Blackberry to voice dial his real estate broker. As he counted rings, Superman maneuvered through the air and routed himself over the West bound interstate to stay under cell coverage. To keep his call from getting dropped by the wireless phone grid, he also had to stay under 200 mph. He hoped that satellite phones would be affordable soon. This was slowing him down.

When his real estate broker picked up, he slowed to the pace of a human jogger so that the wind whipping around him wouldn't interfere with his conversation. "Er, yes, Jamie, this is Mr. Kent. Something's come up I have to head out past the suburbs to check on a lead for a story I'm working.

"You can reschedule me? Oh, that's great. I should be back around two and then I have a thing at a school.

"Yes, 3:30 would be great. Thanks, so much." The Man of Steel placed the Bluetooth ear piece back in its pocket in his cape and decided that being able to reschedule his day literally on the fly far outweighed the inconvenience of slowing down for a few minutes.

Speeding up to nearly Mach One, the Metropolis Marvel climbed over the flight levels of commercial and military aircraft. Then he calmly went ballistic: Superman launched himself into a low orbital trajectory which would end in a few minutes on the coast of California. From there, he would follow the highways to Pasadena and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He wanted to find out if the virus that had affected their computers was connected to the transmissions received from Krypton. Coincidence doesn't prove causality, but it was a working theory.

Back in his high school days he would have turned to Chloe Sullivan to help with the virus, but now he didn't know where she was and he hadn't met any good other good hackers yet during his first month back on earth. As it occurred to Superman that he was ignoring the proverbial "white elephant in the room with him" by not watching the complete video of the transmission from Krypton, someone else was thinking of Chloe as well.

Back on the ground in Metropolis, a trim older gent with a lion's mane of graying hair and a well-kept beard who wore an impeccably tailored silk Armani suit and perfectly shined thousand dollar shoes walked up to the gum-chewing, spiky-haired, fresh faced receptionist of the Daily Planet and asked to sign in to see Miss Sullivan. The reception queried if he meant a Miss Jonelle Sullivan in housekeeping or Ms. K. Sullivan in the printing department. The older gent leaned heavily on his cane sighed wearily. He meant Miss Chloe Sullivan the reporter. The receptionist assured him that there was no Chloe Sullivan the Reporter and never had been at least not in all her time at the Daily Planet. The older gent inquired how long her tenure at the Planet had been. The receptionist replied that it was as long as she had been working. The older gent assured the receptionist that he had been reading the Daily Planet since before the receptionist's mother was in diapers and at one time his family had even owned the Daily Planet. The receptionist tapped a buzzer on her desk and said "Security."

The older gent said don't bother and turned and began to walk toward the revolving doors at the front entrance. When he had gone a few steps to show that he was leaving and heard the receptionist cancel the call for security, he stopped, pulled out his wireless phone and speed dialed. The phone rang four times and then was answered, "Perry White speaking and this had better not be a prank."

"Good morning, Mr. White. It's Lionel. I know that I have been away for a while, but I do hope that I still carry some clout around here."

Lois Lane sat at her desk and just stared at the screen of her laptop. The irony of this day was beginning to sink in. This evening she would receive the Pulitzer Prize for an editorial column which was at once the most irrelevant ever written, and the favorite of one of the most infamous criminals of the current age. Her son had thrown a grand piano across a room. Zod. Clark. Superman. Jason. It seemed like the answers were right there in front of her but she just couldn't see them.

Superman knew that he had to see the original video of the transmission from Krypton, before he pursued the virus at JPL. For this, he changed course and headed out into the desert to the control complex for the Very Large Array. Besides, their computers had also been infected with the same virus that had plagued the JPL. The Man of Steel could hit two birds with a single stone there. He climbed back up above 45, 000 feet, to avoid breaking windows at ground level and interfering with aircraft in the flight levels. Then he shot straight over to the VLA's HQ: zero to 60,000 mph to zero in five seconds flat. As he descended to the building's entrance, the Last Son of Krypton wondered absently why his own brains weren't smashed out against the inside his skull.

"Excuse me, can I see some ID, Bub?"

Superman turned back to look at the security guard. He moved his hands in a gesture to point out his uniform "Don't the Shield and the Cape tell you who I am?"

"You been gone a long time, and I got a job to do, Bub. Right here in my policy manual it tells me that the law says, I got to see ID and Security Clearance before I let anyone into this building. Ain't you got a flying license, or anything?"

"Are there any loopholes, for example could I get someone inside to vouch for me and sign me in?" He could rip the doors off their hinges and just walk through, but Superman stopped for this security guard because he had respect for the law.

"Yeah, I s'pose."

"I'll be back," the Last Son of Krypton said over his shoulder as he stepped back outside the building to get decent reception on his Blackberry. Googleing the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelliegence, and the VLA to check on their funding, he found that the Wayne Foundation made sizeable donations to both. So did LuthorCorp, for that matter. But he had Bruce's number. He didn't know where to find Lionel these days. Superman wasn't entirely sure he wanted to owe a favor to a man like Lionel, even though the elder Luthor had channeled the spirit of his father Jor-El many times during the months leading up to Dark Thursday and the first conflict with Zod in Smallville. As the Man of Steel took one Blackberry out of a pocket in his cape the other one rang.

A few minutes earlier, Lionel Luthor sat with Perry White in the Starbucks just off the lobby of the Daily Planet.

"Well, Lionel, since you still own a few percent of our stock and sit on our Board of Directors, I would normally give you ten minutes. But to day is very busy so you only get seven," barked the Editor-in-Chief.

"I'm right here, Mr. White." Lionel gestured with both hands slightly pointing to his face. "I still hear just as well as I used to. I only need to talk to Chloe Sullivan, Mr. White; that's all."

Perry looked stricken.

"Don't tell me she went to New York to write for the Times." Lionel inquired casually. He still had a certain fondness for Miss Sullivan even after all the years.

The Editor-in-Chief gathered his composure, "She did indeed leave the Big Apricot for the Big Apple, but she's not writing for the Times."

"Alright, then perhaps you could tell me how to get in touch with Clark Kent? I recall seeing his byline back in the Planet after a five year absence."

Perry pulled a business card out of his vest, wrote two phone numbers on the back of it and slid it across the table to Lionel. "The second one is his intern. She's in school 'till two this afternoon."

"Thank you, Mr. White." Lionel said looking down at the numbers on the card, not seeing that the other man had already stood and turned away.

"Don't mention it." White called looking back over his shoulder as a waitress set their espressos down on the table, and Lionel dialed the first number.

By the third ring, Superman stood fifty feet above the ground where no on would hear. Though he answered the Blackberry in his Clark Kent style, he couldn't entirely keep the frustration Superman felt with the security guard out of his tone "Clark Kent, Daily Planet, may I have the first question?"

"Very good, Kal-El, I see you've stepped right back into your other persona, even after a five year absence."

"Lionel Luthor. There are some things in this world that will never change. It's good to hear that name; I wish it were as good to hear your voice." The Man of Steel rose an extra fifty feet. He really didn't want anyone to hear him talking to Lionel.

"I read in the Daily Planet about what my son did to your Fortress. I regret that. I also regret what he did with those crystals. I never did teach him enough - -"

"What you did and didn't teach Lex could fill the space between Arizona and Metropolis." Regret and anger touched Superman's tone, for he knew that man Lex was today had been shaped by Lionel and himself.

"Is that where you are now, getting hassled by common folk doing their jobs, while you try to get into a building?" the elder gent enquired with a compassionate tone.

"How could you possibly - -" The regret left the Man of Steel's tone. Anger remained.

"I'm watching you right now on a satellite my company built for the NSA."

Superman looked up and scanned the heavens. He spotted two reconnaissance satellites with LuthorCorp insignia. "Which: the one over Alaska or the one over the Gulf of Mexico."

"Oh, how I wish, I could see your face now, Kal-El." Lionel smiled. "I simply recognized the frustration in your tone of voice. I empathize with the humanity of your situation." Over the years he had made similar statements countless times, though rarely with the genuine sincerity he now felt. "I, too, was similarly frustrated just moments ago in the lobby of the Daily Planet while trying to find a mutual friend of ours, Chloe Sullivan."

"Chloe." Superman began to drift in a circle, almost dancing with her memory.

"Yes, Chloe."

"Did you find her?" Hope began to creep back into Superman's voice.

"No, but I think I can get at least one of your crystals back for you, maybe more. My son has a habit of choosing female companions with heart: Miss Lang, Miss Tessmacher." Lionel looked up into the middle distance and ticked them off on the fingers of his right hand. "… Miss Kowalski."

"Why would you help me like this, Lionel?"

Lionel savored a sip of his espresso, good but not like Martha used to make at the Talon in the old days. "Because, I have been hearing from Jor-El again, though not as clearly as we would both no doubt like. Perhaps, if we were to get the fortress up and running again, I will be able to hear him more clearly. I will also phone the director of SETI and get you access to that transmission."

Superman was about to say thank you, but the line was already dead.

"This is the transmission replayed from the original analog tape." The image was grainy and green. It appeared to be formed from Kryptonese glyphs running up and down the screen almost like the green Matrix code in those Wachowski Brothers movies. The image looked like his father Jor-El. The scientist in the white coat pressed the play button and Jor-El began to speak.

"Beware Zod. He is a military genius, a conqueror like few worlds will ever know. Accompanied by his acolytes Ursa, herself a genius in the design and manufacture of weapons, and Narn, General Zod was banished forever into the Phantom Zone for Crimes Against Krypton. But if any could find a way of escape, it would be these three. And so, I, Jor-El, Chief Astronomer and Physicist of the Counsel of Elders of Krypton, and formerly Ambassador to the Twenty-Eight Known Galactic Civilizations, send all of you this warning."

White Coat hit the stop button. "It goes on like that, poetic I think, almost Shakespearean."

"Can I get a copy?" Superman asked, longingly.

"I'm not sure that would be advisable." White Coat replied

"Why?" The Last Son of Krypton asked with a tear in one eye.

"The more we cross reference the other parts of the transmission, to try and gain clarity, or digitally process it in any way through a computer and not a simple playback machine, it transforms. The message becomes an image of General Zod, saying beware the son of Jor-El."

Superman looked stricken.

"I doubt that's what you'd want. Any computers we process it through also crash from viral activity and then promptly reboot themselves to function flawlessly.  
Superman walked a circle and regained his composure, "Can you isolate a part of your system and process a fresh copy?"

"We could, sure."

The Man of Steel removed his Bluetooth earphone from its pocket within his cape, and set the switch from his Clark Blackberry back to his Superman Blackberry. He pointed to it, "I will make some calls and find the best computer-man or –woman to come out here and crack the virus."

"Thank you, Superman. We will need it. I think the virus got out."

Superman rubbed his temples. It was going to be one of those days. One of his Blackberries sounded a chime and he remembered that Clark Kent would soon be due at Jason White's school.


	12. On the Way to the Pulitzer

Usual disclaimers…the giants own it. I just get to play on their shoulders.

With a Blue Ray mini DVD containing the original video from Krypton in tucked in his cape, Superman flew back east to his rendezvous with Jason. While he flew away from the Headquarters building of the Very Large Array, the Man of Steel stayed low and kept to the highways for cell phone reception. He made the phone calls that he had promised to the technician who had helped him with the video.

The Man of Steel tried calling Bruce Wayne at his office on both Blackberrys. The secretary let through neither Clark Kent, Daily Planet reporter, nor Kal-El, Last Son of Krypton. So, he placed a call instead to Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's butler. He felt sure that Alfred would have a way of transferring his call.

Alfred's voice came on the line, "You have reached Wayne Manor." It was voice mail. "Please leave a message after the - -" Superman cut off the call before the voice mail got to the beep. Technology could save your schedule and people could complicate it unnecessarily all within the span of a few hours' time. He would have to hurry this time, since he needed to talk to Bruce. Or did he? Bruce had always spoken very highly of Lucius Fox. Words like brilliant, tenacious and discrete were always associated with Fox. Perhaps Fox could help him. Hmmm.

"Good after noon, Mr. Kent." Fox took his call. This was swell. "I heard that you and Superman were both trying to reach Mr. Wayne. So, I told the phone room to put either of you through to me, if asked."

The Man of Steel slowed down and dropped altitude. "No wonder Mr. Wayne always speaks so highly of you."

"So, how can Wayne Enterprises help the Daily Planet, Mr. Kent?" Fox spoke in a slightly disinterested tone, and the sounds of turning pages in the background suggested that he was reviewing reports. "Every week, I speak with the Planet's Publisher, Franklin Stern, during the conference call with top managers in all of our business units. Occasionally Perry White will call me, but I don't usually get calls from rank and file employees in any of our businesses."

Wayne Enterprises owns the Planet, when did that happen? While I was gone, like everything else. "I appreciate your time Mr. Fox. I know a man like you is very busy, so I will come directly to the point. If I were …" Superman chose his words carefully here "… researching … background for a story on the mysterious computer virus that recently hit both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and the Very Large Array, who would I talk to about how cure it or immunize systems against it?"

Fox replied, "We have two men with whom you might speak, Mr. Kent. I'll text you their numbers. One is an employee of our software division in Seattle, Thomas Anderson; the other is a consultant simply known as Smith."

Superman thanked Fox, rang off, and tucked his Bluetooth headset away. The Man of Steel was about to launch himself into a high energy, short term trajectory that would take him back to Metropolis and his meeting at Jason's school when the Superman Blackberry rang again. Caller ID showed the Very Large Array. He wondered for a moment how he should answer. Then he thought of what an average person expects… "Hello, Superman speaking."

"Yeah, hi, I was actually hoping to get your voice mail," the voice sounded like the White Coat who had helped out with video transmission from Krypton earlier. "But I'll just go ahead and tell you. We just resolved another part of the message that seems genuine. It's something about the return of Hahl Jor-Dan or returning to the Halls of Jor-Dan. Were they relations of yours, from back on Krypton?"

"No." the Last Son of Krypton replied authoritatively. "There was no House of Dan on Krypton."

"Okay then, it's nothing really. I just wanted you to know and now you do. Thanks for your time. I'll just - -"

Superman stopped in mid-flight and straightened himself up perpendicular to the ground, preparing to reverse course if necessary. "Wait. Yes. What's that shouting in the background about a bogey off the California Coast?"

"They say it's just a very small blip, Superman," White Coat replied. "We also show two fighter squadrons conducting war games over Edwards Air Force Base. It's nothing they can't handle."

The Man of Steel recalled that he'd overheard Perry talking with the Managing Editor of the Planet's West Coast Bureau in Los Angeles about one of the artists taking some leave to go fly with his Reserve unit. The guy's name was … Rayner. Wondering if that was Rayner out there in the war games, Superman bade White Coat good day and rang off.

Finally he launched himself into that high energy, short time trajectory and headed directly around the curve of the earth from the Arizona desert to Metropolis.

Krypton's Last Son changed back out of his blue uniform and into his charcoal grey suit and glasses before walking up the steps of the Brentwood Academy. He spoke to the Headmaster and school counselor briefly about the pressures parents on their children to succeed at such young ages. The Headmaster invited him to discuss the matter with the faculty and parents during the PTA meeting next week. They scheduled follow-ups then as well. Next, the reporter asked if he could see some of the first grade classes.

As a secretary guided Clark down the corridors, he sub-vocalized to Jason, letting the lad know that he was on his way dressed as Mr. Clark. When the secretary dropped Clark off at the class room, Jason didn't rush up and hug him, though Clark wanted to do just that for his son. The lad simply smiled from across the room. The teacher called recess and guided the children through the halls and out to a play-scape in the quadrangle in the center of the school. Clark spoke to some of Jason's schoolmates about how they liked their school, their teachers. He asked how their parents seemed to feel about the school and about how well they did there. They all raved about their recent field trips to Luthor Corp Plaza here in Metropolis and to Wayne Tower in Gotham.

The reporter came back and spoke with his son more than once. They talked about reading and math mostly. And PE. Jason said that he had been participating more in Gym since their flight together in his Dad's sea plane.

Clark tried to just hang out, with as little agenda as possible, when talking to Jason. He acted like he had an agenda when talked to his son's schoolmates, keeping those conversations brief and to the point, hoping that this would keep the children from noticing how he kept coming back to Jason. With Jason's schoolmates, the reporter even pulled out his small bound notebook and pen to take notes by hand. The youths thought that was quaint and chuckled about it.

"Oh, Mr. Clark." Jason's face brightened. "I almost forgot to tell you about our field trip to Gotham!"

"Well, you go out there to visit your godfather, Mr. Pennyworth at Wayne Mannor sometimes don't you?" Clark looked nervously at his watch. He had to catch the train soon, so he could get some work done.

"Yeah, but this was great!" Jason's grin broadened mischievously.

"There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?" A couple more minutes wouldn't hurt.

"The whole school went to Wayne Enterprises. Last week we went to Luthor Corp here in Metropolis. Blegh!" Jason made a face and stuck his tongue out. "But Wayne Enterprises was great. Mr. Wayne's little brother Dick met my class and took us around. We met Mr. Fox and even Mr. Alfred came…"

There was a whistle.

"Oh, that's my teacher." The lad quieted. His face dimmed. "It's time for recess to end. See you tonight for the Pullitzer." He brightened back up.

"See you," The reporter and the lad bumped fists. Then Clark scooped up his computer bag and made his way out to the subway station. He still had an appointment with his real estate lady and an article or two to write on the way.

"So, I finally signed a lease on an apartment." Clark, Richard and Lois were crossing the elevator gallery.

Clark's Blackberry rang.

Richard's cell phone rang.

Richard and Clark answered their calls. Then Lois's cell phone rang.

"Hey, Dad. It's me. It's Jason. Uncle Perry wants you and Mommy and Mr. Clark back down here. He says we all gotta put on our penguin suits and go to the Pulitzer. We're not gonna trespass on any boats on the way are we?"

"No, son. No more of that. But I think we might stay up late and go out for ice cream afterward."

"Great. Can Superman come, too?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Richard extended the cell phone to Clark and then burst out laughing.

"What's so funny, Dad?"

"I'm sorry son. We'll be down there in a few minutes." Richard told his son he loved him and closed his phone.

Perry's yell carried loudly through Clark's Blackberry, "Kent, will you get my International Edition Editor off the phone, finish your male bonding, war stories, or whatever it is today. Tell my investigative reporter to put out her cancer stick and all of you get down here! You have stories to finish, and we have a Pulitzer Ceremony to attend!"

"Yes, sir, Mr. White, I'll get right on that," Clark replied, nearly coming to attention and saluting. "But I think they all heard you just fine and I don't even have the speaker on."

"Ms. Lane, hi it's Trish. The Chief wants you guys back in here. I tried to call Mr. Clark, but his phone was busy."

They all hung up and then started talking at once. Then they cracked up laughing. "Whew, I didn't need super-hearing to catch what the Chief was saying there." They laughed some more.


	13. One Moment of Perfect Clarity

Disclaimer: The giants are kind enough to let me play in their sand box.

Author's Note: Speakfire has a chapter in her story about the actual Pulitzer ceremony. It even features Trish. This chapter deals more with one moment of realization.

After the ceremony Lois carried her Pulitzer Prize around. She had forgotten her acceptance speech, or at least the note cards. So, she had adlibbed. It wasn't like she hadn't done that a thousand times while she worked on Mrs. Kent's state senate staff. She had thanked her father, The General, and her departed mother. She had thanked her son. And then she did something very out of character. A single tear meandered down her face and she apologized. To Superman. She was on the verge of completely dissolving into tears, so she thanked the crowd and stepped down.

Later, under the sky in the courtyard of Bruce's hotel, by the fountain, Lois stood there still kind of floating through the evening. Richard had taken Jason for ice cream. She seemed to be holding on to her Pulitzer like it was her life line. She saw Clark talking with one of the Amazons who had come with Diana, an Amazon who looked remarkably like Chloe had back in college. Except her hair was the wrong color.

Lois realized it was raining. It had moved from a mist up to a drizzle. She wondered where Superman was. Why hadn't he come to accept her apology? Why wasn't she dancing in the sky with him?

Clark and the Amazon had turned so that Lois could see slightly more of Clark's face and slightly more of the Amazon's back. Clark's hair was wet. His glasses were steamed over. He had taken the glass off to awkwardly try to clean them on the handkerchief he removed from his coat pocket. He almost stepped on the Amazon's feet. But she dodged gracefully around him, like Chloe always used to do. He continued rubbing his glasses and nearly elbowed the Amazon. Clark was such a klutz.

Finally the Amazon and Clark sat down on one of the benches surrounding the fountain. Clark still didn't have his glasses back on. Lois seemed to be floating with the same point of view since Clark had taken off his glasses. The Amazon reached over and pushed Clark's hair back out of his face. She missed a single lock of hair, one that began to curl slightly.

And then the world froze for Lois Lane. Or perhaps it was she who froze. She couldn't tell. It was like a bolt of lightening had struck her. Perhaps this was how St. Paul felt when he recovered his sight after the journey to Damascus. Suddenly she saw with perfect clarity. She saw what had been right in front of her eyes since the day ran her truck off the road into a corn field in Nowhere, KS, no make that Smallville, KS all those years before. Clark Kent was Superman. Superman was Clark Kent. The two were one in the same. One plus one does not make two. It makes one. Do not pass Go. Do not drop your Pulitzer. Do not vomit into the fountain.

And then she remembered. Everything. It unspooled before her like a life flashing before her eyes: Clark reaching into the fire in that stupid pink hotel room in Canada; Clark flying her to the crystal Fortress in the mountains cradled in his arms; Clark stepping into the red light chamber and giving up his powers; the night they spent together. Zod! Ursa! Narn! Luthor! Back to the Fortress. Her fist connecting with Ursa's face after Clark broke Zod's hand.

And Jason. Nine months after that first fateful trip to Superman's crystal temple of solitude in the mountains, Jason was born. She and Richard had thought Jason had been a couple of months premature. But Jason arrived right on time. And he was the son of Superman, the son of Kal-El of Krypton. Talk about the unprintable story of the century. How am I going to explain this to Richard?

And then she did drop her Pulitzer.

She did vomit into the fountain.

Clark and the Amazon picked her up. Clark was standing there with his glasses back on, moving his hands in and out from the center of his chest and twirling them around. Clark told her to breath and offered to get her a glass of water. She reached around and grabbed a drink out of someone else's hand and threw it into Clark's face. "You are not doing that to me again. I know who you are."

And then Diana was at one elbow. Bruce was at the other. Lois was wrapped in a towel and Bruce led her out of his hotel to a cab.


	14. Epilogue

Disclaimer: Based on characters and situations owned and / or created by DC Comics, Warner Bros., Pictures, Richard Donner, Brian Singer, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Siegal, Schuster, Kane, Speakfire, et al. I make no money from this yet, though when I do I will gladly share with all who help make that day possible.

Lois woke up. It was still dark outside. Awareness crept in, Richard and Clark talking about someone named Rayner out on the West Coast. She felt sheets over her chest and her own pillow under her head.

She sat up, rubbed her eyes with her fists and looked around. She was surrounded by people: Richard, Jason, Diana, Clark, the other Amazon, Alfred, Bruce. Wait, track back. Clark and the other Amazon were holding hands. Clark wore no glasses. Clark's shirt was unbuttoned beneath his vest and tuxedo jacket. His bow-tie hung, untied, around his neck. Beneath his starched, white shirt was a deep red and dark yellow emblem in a field of blue. Wait, track back. Beneath Clark's starched white shirt was Superman's uniform in front of all these people.

"It's okay, Mommy. We're among friends. Trusted friends." Jason held her hand reassuringly.

"Could Jason's father and I have a moment?" Lois asked staring Clark straight in the eyes. "Yes, Smallville, you."

"Gadzooks, Mom, how tacky." Jason let go of her hand.

"You're the one who said they were trusted friends." No. Wait. Track back. My God. I said that. There's no way to take it back.

Alfred turned to Bruce, "Master Wayne, I think I should perhaps go and make some coffee for these fine people." Bruce nodded, and Alfred turned to go downstairs. Everyone else seemed frozen.

The other Amazon stared at Clark.

From the door Alfred asked, "Would Mr. White be so good as to show me to the coffee pot?"

Richard didn't seem to hear. He was completely focused on Lois.

Jason stood up and took Richard's hand and said loudly, "Dad, can I have some coffee with Mr. Alfred?" Everyone turned looked at Jason and Richard. Jason looked up into Richard's eyes with all the love and respect a six year old could display.

"Sure, son, as long as it's decaf. Let's go." Richard smiled back. Calm. Confident. Secure. Unflappable.

Jason turned back to Clark on the way out. "Father, we'll see you down staris."

"Okay, Jason."

Lois made shooing motions with her hands, "The rest of you too. Bruce, Diana, Chloe's twin, you guys all go on."

When they were alone, Lois sat up on the bed and turned to Clark, "And you were going to tell me when, exactly?"

Clark glanced at the clock on the wall. It was a few minutes past midnight. He pointed to his watch. "Today. I was going to tell you the day after you got the Pulitzer. Richard and Jason and I talked Tuesday. I wanted to you to have your moment in the spotlight when you got your Pulitzer. I didn't want this," gesturing with his hands he indicated the dialogue between them, the whole situation, "or that" looking back over his shoulder at her Pulitzer on a side table, "to overshadow each other. I …"

"Did you know when you left for Krypton? About Jason, I mean?" Tears welled in Lois's eyes and she spoke with hurt in her voice as though she felt abandoned all over again.

"No." His face twisted in agony. "I didn't know. Lois - -"

"For a guy who can see to the center of the earth and hear clouds scrape together, to not know that I was pregnant…that is a stretch."

"Lois, I didn't consciously know." His words came out slowly. He formed each one with great care, like he was cutting diamonds. "If I had known, I would have stayed. I would have been fragged emotionally, a complete wreck after killing Zod, but I would have stayed."

"Okay. I can accept that. I guess I have to." She wiped her eyes with her thumbs and the heels of her hands.

"And my memories?" Lois sniffled. "What happened to them?"

"I suppressed them hypnotically. But you had to keep them repressed after I was gone. I planted a post hypnotic suggestion that if every I was Dead, Dying or Gone, you should remember." Clark's words came out more fluidly now, though his face betrayed the emotional gut wrenching he felt inside.

"You look like you've got a big hunk green kryptonite hung around your neck."

"That's about what this feels like." A tear ran down Clark's cheek.

"So, what do we do now?" Lois extended a hand. Clark helped her up to a standing position.

"The three of us raise our son." Clark's face looked like a weight had lifted. "I'll want Diana and Batman to help me train him. But you and Richard and I have to raise him together."

"But how?" Lois looked genuinely perplexed.

"I had Dad and Jor-El, when I grew up." Gently, Clark tried to explain. "Bruce had Thomas Wayne and Alfred, when he grew up. Jason and Richard are getting the better end of the deal."

"How do you mean?"

"Richard still has his father and Perry, and a Jason will have Richard and me." Clark studied Lois's face. He decided she still didn't get it. "Jason and Richard have two living father figures. Bruce and I had one living and one dead."

"Oh. Silly me."

"No, you're just overwrought. Your brain isn't working in hyper-drive right now." Clark smiled warmly, genuinely.

"So, are we going down stairs, to have coffee with everyone?" Lois asked sleepily.

Clark cocked his head to one side and listened carefully, then looked down as though looking at fish through a glass bottomed boat. "They're all crashed out on the couches and chairs and even the floor."

Then he listened again. "I have to go. There was an unexplained phenomenon off the coast of California this afternoon. The Air Force and the Coast Guard have been dealing with it but I need to check into it as well."

"Will you be okay?" Lois looked concerned. The concern a woman feels for a brother, not a lover.

"I'll be fine. I have friends." Clark spun around like an ice skater and transformed into Superman.

"I know you have friends here, but…?" her face said he was being over confident.

"With just the friends in this house I could turn the world upside down or put it back to rights again. And surely you remember Oliver, Victor and AC?" Superman asked while opening the window.

"Green Arrow, Cyborg and Aquaman?" Lois chuckled. "How could I forget them? I named them."

"Ollie formed a Club or a League of Gentlemen, or something."

"Oh really?" Lois grabbed her tape recorder.

"Yeah, since I got back we all work together, sometimes." Clark smiled. "But I think I have a new guy to break in on this one. And he already has a call sign."

"Who gave it to him?" Lois looked like she smelled a story.

"His predecessor. It came with the ring." Clark replied cryptically

"I don't get it."

"Not to worry. You'll read about it on Saturday or Sunday. Do me a favor, please, Lois?" Superman asked standing in the window, now about to jump.

"Wake Richard and have him contact Kyle Rayner from the Planet's West Coast Bureau. I'll meet Rayner on the flight line at Edwards Air Force Base. See you soon." And with that he flew up, up and away.

Stay tuned to this web site my fellow Superman fans. The sequel to this story will be called Betrayal of Trust. It should start appearing in a week or two.


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